1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens system having an image blur compensating function, and more specifically, to a zoom lens system suitable for use as a telephoto zoom lens and a standard/standard high-magnification zoom lens system for single-lens reflex cameras and digital cameras capable of preventing image blurring caused by vibration of an image plane (e.g. vibration of an image plane caused by camera shake when photographing is performed with the camera held in hands).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, unsuccessful photography resulted mostly from camera shake and failure in focusing. In recent years, however, most cameras have adopted the autofocus mechanism and the focusing accuracy of the autofocus mechanism has improved, so that the failure in focusing is hardly a cause of unsuccessful photography. On the other hand, the standard lens system mounted in cameras has been shifted from the fixed focal length lens system to the zoom lens system and the focal length at the telephoto limit and the magnification have been increased accordingly, so that image blur resulting from camera shake is very likely caused. Consequently, it is no exaggeration to say that unsuccessful photography results from camera shake. For this reason, an image blur compensating function is indispensable to taking optical systems.
As the zoom lens system having an image blur compensating function, various types have been known. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H6-337375 discloses a telephoto zoom lens system comprising five lens units of positive, negative, negative, positive, negative configuration or positive, negative, positive, positive, negative configuration wherein image blur compensation is made by moving the entire second lens unit vertically (i.e. in a direction perpendicular) to the optical axis. Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H5-232410 discloses a telephoto zoom lens system comprising four lens units of positive, negative, positive, positive configuration wherein image blur compensation is made by moving the entire second lens unit vertically to the optical axis. As a commercially available zoom lens system having an image blur compensating function, a zoom lens system is known comprising six lens units of positive, negative, positive, negative, positive, negative configuration wherein image blur compensation is made by moving the entire second lens unit vertically to the optical axis.
However, the above-described conventional zoom lens systems having an image blur compensating function are defective since the total length is too long at the wide angle limit and at the telephoto limit. Even though a zoom lens system has an image blur compensating function, it is undesirable if the lens system is large in size compared with a zoom lens system having no image blur compensating function because the use of such a large-size lens system is disadvantageous in improving portability and handiness. In the zoom lens system having an image blur compensating function, not only the optical quality is necessarily excellent in a normal condition (hereinafter, referred to as "pre-decentering condition") but also the optical quality is necessarily maintained excellent in a compensated condition (hereinafter, referred to as "post-decentering condition") by preventing aberrations from being caused by the decentering of the lens (hereinafter, aberrations caused by decentering will be referred to as "decentering aberrations").
As the taking optical system having an image blur compensating function, various other types have also been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H5-224160 discloses a zoom lens system comprising five lens units of positive, negative, positive, positive, negative configuration wherein the fifth lens unit is divided into a front lens unit having a negative refractive power and a rear lens unit having a positive refractive power and image blur compensation is made by moving the front lens unit having a negative refractive power vertically to the optical axis. Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H7-199124 discloses a zoom lens system comprising four lens units of positive, negative, positive, positive configuration wherein image blur compensation is made by moving the entire third lens unit vertically to the optical axis. Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H2-135408 discloses a telephoto lens system comprising four lens units of positive, negative, positive, negative configuration wherein image blur compensation is made by moving the entire second lens unit or the entire third lens unit vertically to the optical axis. Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H6-289298 discloses a zoom lens system comprising four lens units of positive, negative, positive, positive configuration wherein image blur compensation is made by moving the entire second lens unit vertically to the optical axis.
In the zoom lens systems disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Applications No. H5-232410, No. H5-224160 and No. H6-289298 wherein image blur compensation is made by moving a plurality of lenses vertically to the optical axis, the weight of the moved lenses is heavy and the lens frames for holding them are large, so that the driving system for driving image blur compensation is greatly burdened. This results in an increase in size of the image blur compensation driving system and a delay in response to decentering. Additionally, in the zoom lens system disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H5-224160, since the fifth lens unit is largely moved during zooming, it is necessary to largely move the heavy image blur compensation driving system during zooming, so that the moving means for zooming is largely burdened. Since the difference in image blur compensation movement amount between at the wide-angle limit and at the telephoto limit is great, the accuracy of calculating the image blur compensation movement amount degrades.
In the zoom lens system disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H7-199124 wherein image blur compensation is made by moving the entire third lens unit, since the third lens unit is formed of one doublet lens, the lens moved for image blur compensation is light in weight. However, since the degree of freedom of aberration correction of one doublet lens is too low, it is impossible for the third lens unit to largely contribute to zooming, so that the optical system excessively increases in size. Since the overall size is great, the optical system is, although suitable for use as the taking optical system for video cameras, too large in size for use as the standard zoom taking optical system for single lens reflex cameras and compactness is lost.
In the zoom lens system disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H6-337375, since image blur compensation is made by moving one doublet lens, the lens moved for image blur compensation is light in weight. However, since the angles of view used are biased toward the telephoto side, the optical system is too large in size for use as the standard zoom lens system.
In the zoom lens systems disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Applications No. H5-232410 and No. H7-199124, since the angles of view used are biased toward the telephoto side, the optical system is too large in size for use as the standard zoom lens system. In Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. H2-135408, since the disclosed optical system is a fixed focal length lens system, its arrangement for image blur compensation does not fulfill the recent requirements for the zoom lens system having an image blur compensating function.